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Content, SEO and social media news: weekly round up – 19/04/2013

Linkedin prioritises content with updated app

Business networking site LinkedIn has revamped the interface of its mobile app – with many of the new features seemingly designed to deliver content to users more effectively. The app now features an enhanced news stream, with a scrollable list of updates, and customisable shortcuts to make linking to content more simple and straightforward. The makeover is said to be part of Linkedin’s new content focused approach – a move which was further exemplified by their purchase of news aggregator and reader Pulse (for an impressive $90 million) earlier this week.

Are social networks reaching their peak?

New data from Experian has shown that social media usage could be on the decline, as users across the UK, US and Australia alike have started to spend less time on the sites. The figures revealed that in 2012, users only spend an average of 14 minutes out of every hour online on social media websites, compared with 16 minutes per hour in 2011 – suggesting that social media saturation has already reached its highest point. “The online landscape is constantly changing and it could be that we’re starting to see social networking sites reaching their peak,” Matt Glasner, Experian manager, concluded. However, it is important to note that the numbers were based on fixed line internet connections only – it could be that users are now surfing their social sites more often through smartphones and tablets, therefore accounting for the desktop decline.

China’s e-commerce market grows to $190bn

The China Internet Network Information Centre has released figures that show the incredible growth of the country’s e-commerce market. The sector garnered an incredible $190 billion (or 1.2 trillion RMB) in 2012 – a 66.5% increase on the figure for 2011. Much of the growth has been attributed to the adoption of mobile devices, with 53.6 accessing e-commerce channels through a smartphone or tablet instead of traditional desktop methods. This data reflects the growing trend of mobile shopping across the globe – a clear sign for business owners that their e-commerce content should be optimised for viewing on a variety of devices!